Marco Odermatt seems unstoppable at the moment, claiming his sixth FIS Alpine Ski World Cup win this season by winning the giant slalom in Adelboden on Saturday (January 7).
The Swiss rider gave the home crowd plenty of reasons to celebrate as he dominated the race, finishing first in both runs and taking a clear victory by almost three-quarters of a second.
To the loud roars of more than 30,000 people crowded at the bottom of the famous Chuenisbärgli Of course, the 25-year-old skied aggressively to triumph in a combined time of 2:30.68.
While there were concerns that warmer than average 5°C (41°F) in conjunction with lack of snow – only the race track on the slope was covered with white goo – it could have disrupted the race, the event went according to plan to the delight of the Swiss audience, which was honored with a double podium Loic Meillard taking third place.
Odermatt’s dominance was so great that the gap between the winner and his teammate in third place was 1.66 seconds, with the Norwegian Henry Kristoffersen 0.73 seconds behind Odermatt.
“It’s just amazing. I could really enjoy today’s race,” Odermatt later told FIS TV. “After last year (who also won) I knew I could win this race and now this emotion, you can hear it. It’s unbelievable.”
At the end of the second stint there were some concerns about the long delay of the race after the serious-looking crash of the Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet, who was pulled from the track by the safety marshals after he ran into the safety net. French television reports indicated that Muffat-Jeandet was suspected to have had a broken nose.
Thanks to the victory, Odermatt strengthened his position both in the general classification and in the classification of the World Cup disciplines. He leads Kristoffersen by 115 points in the giant slalom ranking and Alexander Aamodt Kilde in the entire Crystal Globes race for 400 points.
